Lena Dunham Responds to Attacks on Her Sexual Assault Essay

Earlier this week, reports emerged that book publisher Random House would alter future versions of Lena Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl after an essay Dunham wrote about being raped created problems for a former Oberlin College student who wasn't her attacker. (Dunham wrote about being sexually assaulted by a Republican at the school and used a pseudonym "Barry" to describe him, which fit another student.)

To set the record straight, Dunham wrote a Buzzfeed op-ed piece. "Barry," she starts off, is, yes, just a pseudonym: "Any resemblance to a person with this name is an unfortunate and surreal coincidence. I am sorry about all he has experienced."

She then poignantly details the struggle she has experienced and how our society's handling of rape accounts can be improved.

"Survivors are so often re-victimized by a system that demands they prove their purity and innocence. They are asked to provide an unassailable narrative when the event itself is hazy, fragmented, and unspeakable. They are isolated and betrayed by people close to them who doubt their reality or are frustrated by their inability to move on. Their most intimate experiences are made public property.

"…I have had my character and credibility questioned at every turn. I have been attacked online with violent and misogynistic language. Reporters have attempted to uncover the identity of my attacker despite my sincerest attempts to protect this information. My work has been torn apart in an attempt to prove I am a liar, or worse, a deviant myself. My friends and family have been contacted. Articles have heralded 'Lena Dunham's shocking confession.' I have been made to feel, on multiple occasions, as though I am to blame for what happened."

"But I don't believe I am to blame. I don't believe any of us who have been raped and/or assaulted are to blame.

"… Survivors have the right to tell their stories, to take back control after the ultimate loss of control. There is no right way to survive rape and there is no right way to be a victim. What survivors need more than anything is to be supported, whether they choose to pursue a criminal investigation or to rebuild their world on their own terms. You can help by never defining a survivor by what has been taken from her. You can help by saying I believe you."

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